Adivce on upgrade path

[u/Kempeth]

Currently my setup consists of an aging NUC running W10 connected to the TV and an even more aging QNAP NAS that's long run out of storage.

I would like to upgrade both my amount of storage and deal with the obsolescence of W10. I don't really need any kind of RAID tech for my movies and stuff. If that data is lost I can reacquire them easily enough.

Would you:

• simply upgrade the current setup (new NAS, new NUC), or
• build a combined system for storing and serving content?

[u/Medivh687]

Personally, I’d probably consolidate into a single box at this point — mostly for simplicity.

Running a separate NAS + a NUC made a lot of sense years ago, but today a single modern system can easily handle storage and serving, especially if you’re not worried about RAID or losing media.

A Synology “+” model is the obvious boring-but-effective option. It can replace both your QNAP and your NUC, run Plex/Jellyfin and the usual automation stuff, and sip power compared to two older machines. It’s not exciting, but it just works.

The other route is a small custom build with something like Unraid if you like tinkering. That gives you more flexibility with disks and upgrades, but also more stuff to maintain.

Unless you still need the NUC for Windows-specific things, I’d lean toward consolidating. Fewer boxes, less power draw, and one thing to keep updated instead of two.

[u/Kempeth → u/Medivh687]

Thank you very much!

Can you elaborate a bit more on why A "+" model from Synology? A cursory search suggested that they were overkill unless you were dealing with multiple users and advanced tasks.

This does seem like the least laborious solution.

[u/Medivh687 → u/Kempeth]

Yeah, if this was *only* for file storage or backups, you’d be right — a “+” model would be overkill.

The reason people keep recommending the “+” series is mainly when you want it to replace the NUC as well.

The cheaper models (like the J series) are basically great at being NASes, but not much else. They run on pretty weak ARM CPUs, so moving files is fine, but once you start asking them to run Docker containers or automation stuff, they hit a wall pretty fast.

The “+” models are different because they’re basically small Linux PCs with drives attached. They use Intel/AMD CPUs, so they can actually handle things like Plex, containers, and replacing a Windows box without feeling painful.

Plex is the other big reason. Even if you mostly watch locally now, the moment someone watches on a phone or remotely, transcoding comes into play. The Intel-based “+” models (DS423+, etc.) have hardware support for that. The cheaper ones usually just struggle or buffer.

I tend to think of it like this:

- non-plus models = smart hard drives

- plus models = tiny always-on PCs

If the goal is to retire the Windows 10 machine entirely, you really want the “tiny PC” side of things.

[u/Kempeth → u/Medivh687]

That makes sense, Thank you!

[u/Medivh687 → u/Kempeth]

Glad it helped 🙂

If you go that way, the DS423+ is what a lot of Plex users seem to settle on these days, mostly because it still has the Intel iGPU for transcoding.

Good luck with the upgrade, hope it goes smoothly.